Successfully storing clean tents

By Jamie Swedberg

To store tents well, material needs to be clean and dry, packed in a way that allows it to be handled without damage, and organized so you can find it again. Dryness is the most crucial. Says Clean Awn’s Paul Krugman, “To prevent mold, it is critical that the material be very dry and stored in a dry environment and off the ground. A damp environment encourages mold and mildew growth that will damage your fabric.”

Tent renters in humid climates may have to dry tents longer, hang tents in the sun or invest in a tent dryer to prevent mold and mildew.

The more square footage of tenting your company has, the more important organization becomes. Leavitt & Parris of Portland, Maine, has about 400,000 square feet, so the company developed a rigorous storage system. Materials are stored in “Fabric Alley,” a 14-foot-wide alley about 110 feet long and seven shelves high. “Every individual pallet location is labeled with a code on the racking system, and each forklift has a map that reflects where every individual piece goes,” says vice president John Hutchins IV. “When a foreman is assigned a work order, it spells out every individual piece that he needs to load, and he can refer to the map and find what he needs to pull from the shelves.”

Based in Georgia, Jamie Swedberg is a freelance writer specializing in the specialty fabrics industry since 1997.